We spent last Columbus Day weekend in NYC. The weather was beautiful and it was a perfect time to go. However, the room availability wasn't the best and consequently the room rates were high.

We had such a good time that we'd like to go back again in the next year. August is a possibility as is Columbus Day weekend again. After that, early December might work. However, we could wait until a better time.

Other than the weather, is there a best time to visit NYC? Perhaps when there aren't as many tourists and we'd be able to snag a better deal on rooms and good seats to shows at the Hot Tix outlet.

In NYC high season for hotels is from right after Labor Day until the few days before Chisitmas - with the rates increasing steadily through that time.

IMHO the best time to go - for a combination of weather and prices is May - warm but usually not too hot and hotel rates are moderate.

For fewest tourists and lowest prices go in Jan or Feb - but be prepared to deal with a real winter and possibly a lot of snow.

This year the Jewish Holiday Yom Kippur falls on Columbus day weekend. I don't know how this affects the room rates but Open House New York is being pushed back to the following weekend.

http://thestarryeye.typepad.com/expl...-910-2010.html

The weather tends to be best in either May or September, and crowds are definitely less in May (before schools get out). I also like October, but the hotel rates are creeping up by then. If you want to see Christmas lights and avoid the worst of the Christmas crowds, arrive on Christmas day and leave on New Year's Eve. And you might even snag a good deal on a hotel.

The week between Christmas and New Year's sounds interesting.

I've always supposed that the rates would be astronomical on New Year's Eve itself. Is the spike only for that one night (or maybe I'm wrong entirely).

I'll bet May would be wonderful.

We happened upon the Open House New York weekend when we were there last fall. As it turns out, we didn't have time to visit places - but it sure sounded interesting.

Thanks for your responses.

The week between Christmas and New Year's is less than before Christmas - but not dirt cheap like Jan and Feb - when you may be able to score a deal for $100 - and New Year's Eve is usually sky high. And worst anywhere near Times Square.

Well, dirt cheap sounds pretty good to me!

Totally agree with nytraveler's advice. May's probably the best, and after this winter Jan/Feb is risky with all the snow we had this year. My old roommate came to visit with her fiancé this past Feb and was stuck a few extra days because of the weather and trouble rebooking her flight back to sunny San Diego. So a great time to visit but a slight risk of delay. I vote May.